Some materials are considered very strong, yet they are also very brittle. To me this sounds a bit counterintuitive so please explain to me how a material like carbon fiber for example, is considered strong but yet breaks easily.
In: Engineering
Roughly the “strength” refers to how much force is required to deform the substance. So stronger substances require higher forces to change their shape.
“Brittle” refers to what happens to the substance as it approaches and crosses that threshold. Brittle substances simply break, where as malleable substances will bend or deform without breaking.
Consider a spaghetti noodle cooked vs uncooked:
You can put a book on an uncooked spaghetti noodle and it will be unaffected. Put it on a cooked spaghetti noodle and it goes squish.
But bend an uncooked spaghetti noodle even slightly and it will snap. You can bend a cooked spaghetti noodle all day and it is fine.
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